The moment has arrived for Enner Valencia at Boca. The Ecuadorian forward has been called up for the first time since joining the club and could make his debut this Tuesday against Recoleta in Paraguay, for the second leg of the Copa Sudamericana round of 16.
According to the club's confirmation through its social media, the 36-year-old attacker will wear the number 30 jersey in the international competition, a number that belonged to Tomás Belmonte. For the Clausura Tournament and the Argentine Cup, he will wear the 13, which was given to him by Javier García and which he used for a large part of his career.
The players called up from Boca for the return match against Recoleta
The Ecuadorian had been training differently since his arrival to complete his physical conditioning and catch up with the rest of the squad. After several days of training, Rodolfo Arruabarrena finally decided to include him among the concentrated players, although the initial idea is for him to have a progressive participation and wait for his opportunity from the bench.
In attack, Miguel Merentiel appears as the main candidate to start. The forward was a substitute against Platense and came on in the second half, when he scored the equalizing goal. Valencia's presence would thus be one of the alternatives that Arruabarrena would have to modify the match during the course of the game.
The Xeneize will face the second leg with a significant advantage after the 3-1 achieved in the first leg. Meanwhile, Recoleta, which lost 2-1 to 2 de Mayo over the weekend with an alternative team, will need to overcome a two-goal deficit to take the match to penalties or win by three to advance directly.
The other news from the call-up
In addition to Valencia's first call-up, Arruabarrena decided to make changes to the list compared to the last match. Due to the injuries of Leandro Paredes, Marco Pellegrino, and Leandro Lozano, Williams Alarcón and Milton Giménez will return to the blue and gold roster.
